The present application relates in general to gaming devices and systems and, in particular, to methods and apparatus for providing for disposition of items via gaming devices.
Casinos and other forms of gaming comprise a growing multi-billion dollar industry both domestically and abroad, with electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines being more popular than ever. Gaming machines may be placed in casinos, convenience stores, racetracks, supermarkets, bars and boats. Via a remote server, a gaming entity may provide gaming services in locale of a user's choosing, such as on a home computer or on a mobile device carried by the user.
Electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines can include various hardware and software components to provide a wide variety of game types and game playing capabilities, with such hardware and software components being generally well known in the art. For example, bill validators, coin acceptors, card readers, keypads, buttons, levers, touch screens, displays, coin hoppers, player tracking units and the like are examples of hardware that can be coupled to a gaming machine. Software components can include, for example, boot and initialization routines, various game play programs and subroutines, credit and payout routines, image and audio generation programs, security monitoring programs, authentication programs and a random number generator, among others.
The functions available on a gaming machine may depend on whether the gaming machine is linked to other gaming devices. For instance, when connected to other remote gaming devices, a gaming machine may provide progressive jackpots, player tracking and loyalty points programs, cashless gaming, and bonusing among other items. Many of these added components, features and programs can involve the implementation of various back-end and/or networked systems, including more hardware and software elements, as is generally known.
In a typical casino-based electronic gaming machine, such as a slot machine, video poker machine, video keno machine or the like, a game play is initiated through a wager of money or credit, whereupon the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and then potentially dispenses an award of some type, including a monetary award, depending upon the game outcome. In this instance, the gaming machine is operable to receive, store and dispense indicia of credit or cash as well as calculate a gaming outcome that could result in a large monetary award.
A gaming entity may provide gaming services to tens of thousands of users. For instance, a single land-based casino may include thousands of gaming machines. Player's gaming interests are constantly changing and the effort associated with providing fresh content to users is quite costly. The ability of a casino operator to maximize their operating profits and keep their customers happy is directly linked to their ability to provide new and desirable gaming content.
Thus, gaming device manufacturers are always looking for new and exciting ways to reward players and make gaming device play more entertaining. Awarding players with physical prizes in lieu of the cash equivalent is one game enhancement that certain players enjoy. For example, a casino may offer a new car as a prize or award instead of a traditional cash jackpot. The car may be placed on display in the casino in close proximity to the gaming machines which are capable of enabling players of those gaming machines to win the car. This attracts attention to these gaming machines.
One problem with this type of jackpot incentive is that certain players quickly become discouraged by the fact that that they have tried many times and are no closer to winning the prize than when they started. In other words, the money the player has invested in or wagered on the gaming machine does not help the player's odds on subsequent plays of the gaming machine. Therefore, a large investment or a large wager amount is not an encouragement to continue playing the gaming machine and can be a discouragement. In addition, because a casino may typically have only a few such gaming machines, players are given very little choice as to what prize they would like to pursue.
Another tool implemented by casino operators to keep players happy is customer relationship management (CRM) software. CRM services generally refers to the processes an organization uses to track and organize contacts with its current and prospective customers. CRM software and systems are used to support these processes; the software system can be accessed, and information about players and player interactions can be entered, stored and manipulated as desired. A general goal of implementing CRM services in a wagering environment is to improve services provided to players, and to use player information for targeted marketing.
Using CRM services, casinos and third-parties with which the casino has business relationships engage in marketing of their goods and services both to augment relationships with existing players/customers and to establish relationships with new customers. Thus, an effective CRM system in a wagering environment maintains a repository or database of player transaction history and information characterizing player demographics and purchasing trends, which could potentially be leveraged in developing effective marketing programs. Gaming CRM systems provide analytical, predictive, and management tools to promote customer retention. As part of a campaign, offers in the form of coupons and other comp items are made to players based on various criteria such as games played, player age, gender, rank, etc. These offers are targeted to attempt to provide the right offer to the right player at the right time.
The task of gleaning useful information from the often voluminous records of player activity maintained in CRM databases has proven to be difficult. Even when promotional campaigns are formulated using existing databases, the casino is often unable to readily estimate the effectiveness of the promotional campaign. Also, it has been difficult to discern changes in the behavior of various demographic groups of players, which hinders formulation of effective promotional campaigns. As a consequence, substantial marketing resources and the promotional offers themselves may be allocated ineffectively. This may lead to substantial waste, since such resources may then become directed to population groups in which a less than desirable fraction of the group's members are interested in the product or service being marketed.
Promotional offers are wasted when they are unused or under-utilized. When even a small percentage of issued promotional offers expire or are not redeemed, those offers add no value to the customers or to the casino. Due to the ongoing issues described above, the problem of under-utilization occurs regardless of whether the offers are made to players prior to visiting the casino, while they are in the casino, or later when they return home. Because promotional offers represent an expense to casinos and third party organizations, as well as an economic benefit to the customers, any yield less than 100% of issued promotional offers is undesirable.